$100 in 1952 is worth $575 in 1995,
because prices increased 475.1% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$575
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
475.1%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$575
Price difference ($100 base)
$475
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1952 → 1995
$575
$100 in 1995 → 1952
$17.39
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1995
Between 1952 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 475.1%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1995: the 1952 dollar
lost 82.6% of its purchasing power over
these 43 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1952 amount converts to 1995 at the same ratio, 5.75: $1,000 becomes
$5,751, and $10,000 becomes $57,509.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1995
$1.00
$5.75
$5.00
$28.75
$10.00
$57.51
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$288
$100
$575
$500
$2,875
$1,000
$5,751
$5,000
$28,755
$10,000
$57,509
$100,000
$575,094
$1,000,000
$5,750,943
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1995
Between 1952 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1220.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.4%, against 475.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$575
Medical care
6.18%
$1,320
Transportation
4.01%
$541
Food
3.89%
$517
Apparel
2.62%
$303
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1952: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1952 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1952–1995 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1952, at end
1952–1960
1.39%
11.7%
$112
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$146
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$311
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$493
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$575
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $186 by
1974, on its way to $575 in 1995; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1952 had the buying
power of $575; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1952 to 1995: $100 is worth $575 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1995/